Hillsdale living up to its ranking

Thursday

Apr 29, 2010 at 4:02 AM

The Hillsdale baseball team is ranked No. 1 in this week's Div. III state coaches' baseball poll and is continuing to back it up.The Falcons remained undefeated in Wayne County Athletic League play as they routed an improved Rittman team 14-3 to highlight area action Wednesday.Hillsdale 14, Rittman 3First baseman Cody Cline went 2-for-4 with a home run and five RBI as the Falcons improved to 17-1 (10-0) after the five-inning mercy rule win.Adding two hits apiece for the Falcons were Zach Fulk, Justin Huber and Sam Young (two doubles). Trevor Cline added a double and scored three runs."We started out a little slow but Cody Cline really gave us a lift with a three-run home run," Hillsdale coach Mike Wolf said. "Hitting eighth in the order, that's really nice to get that kind of production at the bottom of the order."Last game out he had three hits, so he's really hitting well. We've really been solid 1-9 in the order all season."Bryant Miller had a pair of strikeouts and yielded three runs in picking up the win.Rittman (9-6, 5-4) had Dustin Prince take the loss after being charged with 11 runs (seven earned) in three innings.Cory Williams doubled for one of the Tribe's four hits.Northwestern 16, Smithville 4Northwestern jumped out to a 7-3 lead after two innings and put away the Smithies in five. Leading the way for the Huskies was Billy Hostetler, who went 4-for-4 at the plate. Joining him for a big night for the visitors was Zach Beegle and Landry Kline with two hits each. Northwestern had doubles from Zac Beegle and Kline, while Jake Blough and Tyler Buss had two hits apiece for the Smithies.Zac Carpenter took the win, pitching five innings, while Frank Duffy was saddled with the loss.Hiland 8, Garaway 4Luke Burch was big at the plate, and Danny Beachy pitched good enough for the win for the host Hawks (12-1, 8-1).Burch went 3-for-4 at the plate to lead the seven-hit Hiland attack. Beachy pitched seven innings to pick up the win.Norwayne 6, Chippewa 5The homestanding Chipps threatened in the bottom of the seventh but couldn't push the tying run across. Chippewa (6-11, 4-5) had runners on second and third with two out when it made the last out.Jac Strickler led the Bobcats attack with three hits in three plate appearances. Tim Chaffin also had three hits and Cody Hartong had a two-base hit.The Chipps got doubles from Ryan Hatala, Ty Hance and Curt Barlett and a solo roundtripper from Cody Bilinovich.Hartong picked up the win, while Chad Owens was tagged with the loss.Revere 10, Cloverleaf 5The Colts dropped to 7-11 and remain winless at 0-8 in the Suburban League with a loss to visiting Revere.Jim Gantose, John Mohney and Dillon Wilson all had two hits with each team having nine hits on the night. One of Mohney's hits was a double.Revere held a 4-3 lead going into the seventh, but put six on the scoreboard to put the game away.Triway 13, Tusky Valley 3The Titans won this one in five innings five innings to improve to 13-4 overall and 8-2 in the Principals Athletic Conference.Nolan Wharton had three hits, including a homer, and two hits each from Cole Drake, Zach Houmard and Eddy Grenert. Also hitting for extra bases were Houmard and Grenert with doubles, while Mark Bricker added a circuit clout.Derek Carmichael (3 SO, 3 BB) pitched the five innings for the win.Clear Fork 13, West Holmes 2West Holmes traveled to Clear Fork to take on the second ranked team in Div. II, but fell behind 6-1 after the first inning and couldn't recover.The Colts banged out 14 hits, while the Knights managed four, with Bryce Norman having two of those.Dalton 5, Waynedale 1J.T. Troyer went 2-for-4 with a double to lead the way for the Bulldogs (4-11, 1-9) in the road win over the Golden Bears (4-15, 4-5). Jake Zeek pitched a complete game in which both teams combined for 10 hits. Caleb Troyer was tagged with the loss.Tuslaw 4, Manchester 0The Mustangs picked up a big PAC win over visiting Manchester and moved to 7-9 overall and 3-6 in league action.Putting in a big night for Tuslaw was Maverick Sales with two hits and an RBI, while Steve Hammond also knocked in a run.Philip Zorger, with seven strikeouts, was credited with the win. The loss drops the Panthers to 6-8-1 and they stand at 3-5 in the PAC.

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